Angel From My Nightmare
by RisemboolRanger
Summary: Harry's a control freak who lives by order and routine. Her only fear is the unnatural. Breaking her routine to start at a new school is bad enough, but if she discovers the school's secret she'll find herself living amongst the creatures of her nightmares. Takuma/OC
1. Hello There

"Make sure you give her clearance at any time," Satoshi Harima – who frequently encouraged his Night Class students to refer to him more formally as Satti-san – told the guard on duty at the Night Class building. "She has long wavy blonde hair, blue eyes, slim, roughly average height… She starts here tomorrow."

"You still sure this is a good idea?" the guard asked gruffly. Satoshi had explained the situation to him and that he'd already gotten the headmaster's permission for his daughter's permanent clearance to all of the school buildings.

"Of course!" Satoshi replied brightly. "She's a smart girl – she'll figure out the school's purpose real quick. She won't like what she finds, but I'm certain it'll do her good in the long run."

"If you say so, Mr. Harima," said the guard with a shrug. It wasn't really his business. He was just here to do what he was told.

"Satti-san," Satoshi prompted.

"No," the guard replied bluntly. "You're free to get your pupils to call you whatever you like, but count me out."

"You're so boring," Satoshi pouted. There was a good reason he was such good friends with headmaster Kaien Cross, without even going into their shared past as hunters – they could both be as childish as each other. It was a little embarrassing for two grown men.

"Whatever, sir. Keep your cutesy nicknames with your students, not with me," muttered the guard. He then added, "I sure hope your daughter's not like you."

"Of course she is! She's sweet and intelligent and very ambitious!" Satoshi gushed, ever the indulging father. He always became starry-eyed when talking about his children.

"Already sounds nothing like you," said the guard quietly, still muttering more to himself. He then cleared his throat. He _knew_ that it wasn't his business but he still had to check one more time. "Do you _really_ think this is for the best? From what you've told me it sounds like you're throwing your daughter into her idea of hell."

"And that's exactly the point," said Satoshi, more solemnly. "I want to _change_ her idea of hell. I'm sure that once she's attended Cross Academy Harry will have a very different opinion of the beings that plague her nightmares."

XXX

Harry was a well-known control freak. She was extremely organised to the point of being obsessive-compulsive and was constantly paranoid over keeping everything perfect that was within her control. She could still cope under pressure, which she often had to do when dealing with her chaotic family, but she much preferred being able to live within routines that she'd built on.

The only thing she feared was the unknown and the unnatural – anything she didn't understand, anything she couldn't control.

But right now she was feeling nervous. She was starting at her new school today. It wasn't exactly anything unnatural or uncontrollable, but it definitely meant she'd be breaking away from her usual routines. If she was going to be living somewhere new she'd have to start a whole series of new routines there too.

"How's the shoulder?"

Harry looked up at her older brother from the passenger seat, her thoughts interrupted. "Not too bad. At least it won't be on display or anything."

She'd never been noticeably strong or fast, so her brother had been teaching her to spar since they were kids. Hideki was good at fighting – so good that he'd been fired consecutively from his last three jobs for having tussles with other employees… and even a customer on one occasion. He was a nice guy, but he had a short temper that he just couldn't control.

They'd had one of their sparring practices a few nights ago and Harry had banged her shoulder on the corner of the coffee table in the midst of it. It didn't hurt that much now but she still had a rather nasty purple bruise, so she was grateful for the white-embossed black blazer she now had to wear as part of Cross Academy's school uniform.

"True," Hideki chuckled. "You don't want anyone thinking you're a roughneck."

Harry snorted. "Definitely not." That couldn't be further from the truth.

Hideki smiled sadly. "I'm gonna miss you not being around. I won't have anyone to practice with."

"Is that all I'm good for?" Harry teased. "Just practice with one of the others."

It was Hideki's turn to snort derisively. "Are you kidding? I'd never get Saki out of her room for starters… Jo clearly isn't an option and Kei's too little. I'd probably break him."

Harry laughed. "I guess you really do need me! Don't worry. I'm sure you'll survive."

"How nice of you."

Hideki pulled up in front of the school and helped Harry out with her suitcase. She stared up at the intimidating wrought iron gates. She felt her stomach clench – this was it. Hideki gave her a giant hug and told her to be good, which she felt was a bit rich coming from him. Then he got back into the car and within seconds he was gone, and she was left alone in front of her new school.

"You must be Tamashi Harima."

Harry glanced round in surprise at hearing her name, seeking out the speaker. She noticed a girl similar to her own age waiting at the gates. She had short brown hair and big matching brown eyes.

"Please, call me Harima. Or Harry," Harry said politely. "I don't really go by Tamashi."

It was true. From a young age her best friend had been Tamaki Kotani and there had always been confusions over the similarities between their names. As a solution people had always referred to them by their family names and Harima had then been shortened to Harry – a nickname that had caught on, even within her own family. She was only ever called Tamashi when she was in trouble, which was rarely when compared to her siblings.

"Harry then." The girl gave her a polite smile. "I'm Yuki Cross. The headmaster's my father. He asked me to show you where your dorm is and give you a quick tour around the academy."

"Oh," said Harry, pleasantly surprised. "Thank you. That's really nice."

"No problem," Yuki beamed. "I'm a member of the disciplinary committee, so it's my duty to help out in any way I can." She dutifully indicated the band attached to her sleeve.

"Disciplinary committee?" Harry repeated. What kind of school would need a disciplinary committee?

"Oh, we don't really do any actual disciplining," Yuki reassured, seeing the look on Harry's face. "We just help to keep order amongst the students."

"That sounds good to me," said Harry, impressed. If there was one thing she could appreciate it was order.

Yuki smiled again. "I'm glad someone sees it that way. Come on, I'll show you to your dorm first so you don't have to drag your suitcase around."

Harry was grateful for that. She wasn't really a materialistic person, but packing for whole school terms at a time definitely took up luggage space. She even felt that she'd been quite lenient with the amount of books that she'd brought with her. She sure hoped that the school had a good library or she'd be out of reading material pretty quickly. It wasn't difficult to tell that reading was her favourite hobby.

Yuki chattered away as they made their way to the dormitories, explaining more about the academy. "This is where we stay – in the Sun dorms. The Moon dorms are on the other side of campus."

"Sun and Moon," Harry mused. She felt that that put her in the better-sounding dormitories. "That's pretty cool. So is the Sun dorm for girls and Moon for boys?"

"No, we have both for each," explained Yuki. "The Sun dorms are for us Day Class students and the Moon dorms are for the Night Class students."

"Night Class students?" Harry asked questioningly. There were students here who studied at night?

"They're all aristocrats," Yuki specified. "They're used to running on a different… schedule to the rest of us." She faltered slightly but Harry didn't notice. She may have read a lot of books, but she wasn't half as good at reading people.

The Sun dormitories were basic, but nice. Harry couldn't help but wonder if the Moon dormitories were more upmarket since they housed aristocratic students. She discovered she was going to be sharing a room with a girl called Yoko Ohayashi. The idea was nerve-wracking enough, but she wouldn't even get to meet her roommate yet since the rest of the Day Class students were currently in class.

By the time Yuki had showed Harry around the whole campus, the classes had clearly ended and the Day Class students had poured outside. Large groups of girls immediately began swarming towards the Night Class building.

"Oh no, it's that time again," Yuki sighed. "I hope Zero's already ahead of them… Come on, I'd better go and help out."

Harry had no idea what was going on but she followed Yuki anyway. Yuki forced her way through the crowd with Harry struggling to keep up. What was going on? It was almost like hordes of fan girls attempting to catch a glimpse of their favourite celebrities on the red carpet.

"What's happening exactly?" Harry had to ask, as Yuki helped her to create a pathway through all the people.

"I guess you could say these guys are a bit like celebrities," said Yuki, mirroring the idea in Harry's head. "They certainly have their own share of admirers. That's part of my duty as disciplinary committee – to try and keep order here… Oh, there's Zero!"

She was looking towards a surly silver-haired boy at the front of the crowd. No sooner had she said it, he noticed her too. His disgruntled expression didn't change. "Where have you been, Yuki?" he called to her. "Have you been slacking off somewhere?"

"Of course I haven't!" Yuki protested indignantly. She quickly turned back to Harry, looking guilty. "Hey, do you mind if I just try and help keep the students in line for a bit? I promise I'll wait here for you afterwards." Her face was concerned, as if Harry couldn't cope on her own.

"Sure, I'll be fine," said Harry, completely nonplussed. She couldn't understand what the big deal was.

"Thank you," replied Yuki gratefully. "Just wait around in this area for me. Maybe move away from the crowd a bit if you need to."

Harry reassured her again that she'd be okay, so Yuki went to join Zero at the front of the crowd where she then started barking orders at some of the girls. Harry felt completely unconcerned. Yuki seemed to have taken this all very seriously, but she really couldn't see any problem here. These were just teenage girls after all – they weren't a pack of ravenous animals.

But then the gate to the Night Class building opened and, proving Harry wrong, all hell broke loose. The girls around her went wild – screaming and pushing and trying to force their way forward. Harry was completely astonished. They _were_ like a pack of animals!

Her first thought was to back away as much as she could, since she was just getting jostled from side to side standing here – Yuki's concern for her clearly made sense now. But she was also curious to wait and see what all the fuss was about. Just what kind of individuals could provoke this kind of mass reaction?

She soon found out. Through the gate walked a group of the most stunning people she'd ever seem. Harry didn't scream or push, but she certainly couldn't help gawking along with everyone else.

She couldn't decide who was more beautiful… The male who looked like a model with his wonderfully clashing red hair and blue eyes, the striking girl with impeccably long curls, the blonde-haired boy with startling green eyes…

Wham! One of the Day Class girls became too agitated and suddenly shoved Harry so hard that she went hurtling forwards out of the crowd. A pair of hands caught her before she could hit the floor and she was pulled up against a solid chest. She blinked up to find a boy with eyes the colour of liquid sky and blonde hair that looked like it had been painstakingly arranged to be stylishly messy.

"Are you okay? Were some of the girls playing too rough?" he asked teasingly in a singsong voice. He still didn't let go of her.

"Err, I'm fine," replied Harry, feeling perplexed. She could stand perfectly fine by herself – he didn't need to hold onto her still. He certainly didn't have to hold her quite so close.

"Hanabusa," warned the other blonde, with the green eyes that Harry had so admired. "She said she's fine; leave her alone."

"I'm not doing anything wrong," Hanabusa argued with a grin, pulling Harry even closer. "Don't you agree? _You_ don't want me to let go yet, do you?"

Before Harry could quite decide how to respond a sharp voice snapped, "Hanabusa!"

Hanabusa jumped and released Harry so abruptly that she staggered sideways several steps. The speaker was another boy, this one with waving black hair and dark eyes to match. He was truly beautiful, but he had a very definite power about him that said that he was in charge. It made Harry feel a little uncomfortable.

"I would listen to Takuma if I were you," he advised, voice cool. "This girl is clearly new – you should leave her be."

"Forgive me, Lord Kaname. It was just a joke." Hanabusa gave him a quick and formal bow out of respect.

"Well it wasn't a very funny one. And it isn't me you should be asking for forgiveness from," the student called Kaname scolded. He then turned to Harry, his face apologetic. "I'm very sorry. Please forgive him for harassing you – I doubt he really meant anything by it."

"Erm, that's okay?" Harry still felt very confused. She couldn't really see where any 'harassing' had come into it. All Hanabusa had done was catch her. He'd maybe held onto her a little too long, but she hadn't really understood the meaning for that anyway… Maybe he'd thought she'd be likely to fall down a second time.

"Kaname!" Yuki had suddenly joined them, looking flustered. "I'm sorry! This is Harry – you're right; she _is_ new. I've been looking after her."

Kaname gave them both a warm smile. "Of course you have." He turned to Harry. "Then you're in perfectly safe hands. Take note of what Yuki tells you and you won't have any problems. I hope you settle in well here."

He briefly patted Yuki on the shoulder, before continuing to walk away with the other Night Class students. Harry noticed that Yuki now looked even pinker in the face. Was she getting sick?

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You look a bit flushed."

"No, no, I'm fine!" Yuki insisted, embarrassed. She pulled Harry over to the side. "But maybe you should wait for me over here, away from the others."

Harry looked over at the crowd to see that the majority of the girls were glaring daggers at her and Yuki. She felt dismayed. Were they going to start discriminating against her because she was new? And Yuki too for helping her? She couldn't think of any other reason for their hostility towards the two of them.

"Here," interrupted Zero, who'd been watching everything with cool eyes. He got Yuki to switch places with him. "You'll be fine over here now," he told Harry. "Most of the girls are afraid of me."

Harry was surprised to hear so. He didn't come across as particularly scary to her. He seemed to vibrate with a certain kind of energy like Kaname did, but nowhere near as intimidating. Either way, she was grateful for his help. As Zero and Yuki continued to shepherd the rest of the girls along she stayed meekly behind Zero and avoided looking at anyone, keeping her gaze fixed resolutely on the back of Zero's head.

It was only her first day and already she didn't seem to be having a very positive impression on the other students. Maybe catching her first look at the beautiful people hadn't been worth it after all…


	2. The Angel From My Nightmare

Meeting her new roommate had been nowhere near the nerve-wracking experience that Harry had been imagining… In fact, it had been quite the opposite. Yoko Ohayashi was possibly the bubbliest person she'd ever met, and she was ecstatic at the idea of having a roommate.

"Hi, I'm Yoko Ohayashi!" she said enthusiastically, holding out her hand.

"It's nice to meet you," replied Harry happily, giving her hand a firm shake. What had she been worried about again? "I'm Tamashi Harima, but you can just call me Harry."

"Harry; that's so pretty!" exclaimed Yoko. "And I'm so glad to finally have a roommate – it gets dead boring in here after classes are over!"

"How come you haven't had a roommate till now?" asked Harry.

"I started the year a little late myself and by that time everyone else had already been assigned rooms together," Yoko explained. "So I've been in here on my own since I started."

Well at least it looked like somebody was pleased she was starting here, Harry thought to herself, remembering the glares she'd received from the other girls earlier on. But out loud she said, "So do you like it here? Is it a good school?"

Her dad had always sung the academy's praises – not to mention it had been his idea for her to transfer to Cross Academy in the first place – but then he was quite biased on the matter. Another student's opinion was bound to be much more reliable.

"Yeah!" enthused Yoko. "There's a lot of nice people here – most of the teachers are really easygoing too. Your dad's Mr. Harima, isn't he? I heard your dad was one of the teachers."

"Yeah, that's him," confirmed Harry. "Do you have him for any classes?" She had to admit that she was intrigued to hear what the other students thought of her father as a teacher.

But Yoko shook her head. "No, I've just seen him around the campus. He only teaches the Night Class students."

So her dad taught the aristocrats… That was actually pretty cool. "So do they really only get taught at night?" She still couldn't quite get her head around that idea. She'd never heard of anything like it at any other schools.

"Yep. It's kinda strange, isn't it?" said Yoko. "Sometimes you see them around on a morning or towards the end of the day, but they generally stay in their dorms. It's almost like they're allergic to sunlight or something."

"Weird," agreed Harry. Maybe they were like those poor pale geeky kids that spent far too long cooped up indoors and then couldn't handle too much direct sunlight. "So do we have a curfew or anything for when we have to be back in our dorms?"

"Generally around twilight," replied Yoko. "Unless you have special permission from one of the teachers."

Harry nodded. That wouldn't be difficult to get if she needed to – her father _was_ a teacher after all. "Can you tell me where the library is? I was shown around the campus earlier but not so much inside the buildings." Now that she'd unpacked she knew for definite that she didn't have enough books with her to last for very long.

"Yeah, it's in the main building closest to the front gates," explained Yoko. "It's on the ground floor, literally the last door at the end of the corridor."

"Great, thanks." Harry grabbed her currently empty shoulder bag, intending for it to be full when she came back.

"You're still gonna go out now?" asked Yoko, looking at the clock on her bedside table. It was practically their curfew time already.

"It's okay. I'll see if I can find my dad and ask him to vouch for me," reassured Harry. Going to look at books didn't really make her the rebellious type. "Um… Do you want me to grab anything for you?"

Yoko laughed. "No, it's alright. I get the feeling you're more into books than I am." She pointedly eyed the small collection that Harry had already set out next to her bed. "I hope you find it okay!"

"Thanks."

She didn't intend to be too long anyway, Harry told herself as she crossed the now quiet campus towards the main building. She pretty much already knew what she wanted… Some classics. Classic novels were her favourites, but she hadn't brought any of her own with her in order to conserve luggage space. She was sure that any library would be guaranteed to have plenty of Shakespeare, Dickens and Hardy.

The library was as easy to find as Yoko had described. And just as quiet as the campus outside. But of course that was normal for a library. Harry had always liked that – it was a nice change from the rowdy atmosphere she was used to at home.

The librarian looked up when Harry came in, but she simply smiled at her then returned her attention to the book in front of her. She didn't say anything about a curfew being due. Perhaps Yoko had been wrong about the time… Well, maybe then she could browse for longer without being disturbed.

The library wasn't very big – it was quite a bit smaller than the one at her last school – and it didn't take Harry very long to realise that it actually _didn't_ have what she wanted. They barely had any classics at all… They didn't even have Hamlet! She asked the librarian, who apologetically confirmed as much that the tiny collection was all they had.

Well damn… She'd have to write back home and see if Hideki could drive up and bring some for her when he had chance. Until then she'd just have to browse for some new material instead. Her empty bag was still flapping against her as a reminder that it wanted to be filled.

She browsed the poor display of classics that were there. The only Shakespeare works on the shelf were A Midsummer Night's Dream and Romeo and Juliet. As much as she loved Shakespeare, those particular two were her least favourites by far. Her practical nature didn't accommodate for fantasy and she didn't care much for romance either.

Personally she thought Juliet was a bit of an idiot. What a waste of a life to kill herself just because Romeo was dead – that wasn't really going to solve anything, was it? Not to mention Romeo had done the same thing in the first place and Juliet hadn't even been dead in that case!

Still, it was the lesser of two evils. Fantasy really had no place in Harry's life. She tucked the copy of Romeo and Juliet under her arm. She needed _some_ Shakespeare to keep her going until she got hold of Hamlet – wet characters or not. Why hadn't she just brought her own copy with her? She _knew_ how often she liked to re-read it…

She also picked up Great Expectations from one of the lower shelves – another one she'd read multiple times already – and a couple of Arthur Conan Doyle's novels. She stacked them all against the crook of her arm and continued to look around. Besides the whole classics drama, the library was quite a nice little place.

There were some desks over in the corner by the window. Maybe she could bring some of her pencils and sketchpads with her and do some drawing in here sometime… Drawing was another of her favourite hobbies – second only to reading.

After quickly scanning a few of the other sections, Harry moved round to have a look at the trolley of books to be put back on the shelves. She always found it quite interesting to see what other people had been reading.

Unfortunately, the choices weren't very educated. Princess Diaries, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Twilight… Oh dear. Hadn't anybody at this school heard of Oscar Wilde or Virginia Woolf?

"Clearly not," Harry muttered to herself, as she rifled through the returned books with her free hand. "Another thin romance… And another… A poor imitation of Battle Royale… Fantastic Mr. Fox? I'm pretty sure that's for kids…"

"You obviously know your books," came an amused voice.

Harry jumped and almost tipped the books she was holding onto the floor. It was one of the Night Class students. The blonde with the lovely green eyes. He'd stepped up to the other side of the trolley without her even noticing – she'd been too engrossed in her own running commentary.

"Oh, sorry," apologised Harry, jogging the books to get a better hold on them. "I was in my own world there." Not to mention she had an embarrassing habit of talking to herself.

"Books have that effect," the boy smiled. "We met earlier outside the Moon dormitories, didn't we? I do apologise for what happened."

"Err, it's fine, really," Harry insisted. She didn't know why people kept apologising for that. She still didn't even quite understand what was bad about what had happened… She clearly knew nothing about social situations.

"I'm glad to hear. I didn't introduce myself properly before – my name's Takuma Ichijo. I'm the vice president of the Night Class students," he said graciously.

"I'm Tamashi Harima," Harry replied. "But you can just call me Harry." She was so used to that way of introducing herself that it just rolled right off her tongue.

"Then Harry it is," Takuma smiled. "This is only your first day, right?" Harry nodded. "Have you managed to find your way around okay?"

"Oh, yeah, Yuki Cross gave me a tour when I first got here – she was really helpful," said Harry. "Then my roommate told me where I could find the library. I guess you could say that was my first priority." She purposely angled the books forward to emphasise her point.

Takuma chuckled. "Well there's no greater escape than reading," he said knowledgably.

"Right," Harry smiled back. Maybe not everyone at this school was so uneducated after all... "It's just a shame this library's so low on classics. I have to admit I was disappointed that they only seem to stock two Shakespeare works here."

"Yes, this library does seem to give priority to more modern writers…" Takuma agreed. "We have a library in the Night Class building too, but it's much smaller than this. Less selection… It _does_ have a wider range of classics though."

"Really?" Harry brightened. Surely at least _that_ library would have a copy of Hamlet.

"Harry!" a different, more familiar voice suddenly called.

"…Dad?" Harry turned round just as Satoshi came running up and threw his arms around her in a bear hug, almost making her drop the books again. "_Dad_!" she protested. "We're at school! You could try acting a _little_ more professional!"

Satoshi disregarded his daughter's comment, but he _did_ release her. "I had a feeling I'd find you in here. Only your first day and you've _already_ found the library!"

Harry couldn't help grinning. "You know me too well."

"And Ichijo!" Satoshi addressed the Night Class student fondly. "I see you've met my daughter. Have you been helping her find her feet too?"

"Just some advice on library selection," said Takuma pleasantly. He displayed no surprise over learning that his teacher was the new girl's father. He then turned back to Harry. "If you _do_ need any help with anything though and you see me around, please feel free to ask. I'll be happy to help."

"Oh… Thank you. I will," said Harry gratefully. Well nobody could ever knock the aristocrats here for being stuck up. So far none of them had been anything but friendly towards her.

"How lovely! That's very generous of you, Ichijo," Satoshi interrupted, looking pleased. "Now Harry, let's go and get those books checked out." He took the stack of books from her in an attempt to be helpful before she could protest. "Let's see, what have you picked up… _More_ Shakespeare?! I don't know how you can read that stuff – they don't make any sense!"

Harry just rolled her eyes at him. "And you call yourself a teacher…"

"I'll see you in class in a bit, Ichijo," Satoshi said over his shoulder, leading Harry towards the librarian's desk.

"Err, it was nice talking to you," Harry added before her dad could drag her away.

"The pleasure was all mine," Takuma replied politely. Wow. Harry wasn't so used to people being quite so… upper class. Her family came from a middle class background through and through.

Satoshi annoyingly accompanied Harry to get signed up for a school library card so that she could get her books checked out. He then showered her with questions about her first day as she packed the books away into her shoulder bag. He went on for so long that Takuma had already checked out a book himself and then left.

"So have you seen all of the Night Class students yet? They're quite something, aren't they?" Satoshi continued his questioning as soon as Takuma was gone.

"Yeah, I guess," Harry replied uninterestedly as she adjusted her bag on her shoulder. Most fathers would be trying to push their daughters away from good-looking boys… Not trying to draw their attention towards them.

"Excuse me…" interrupted the librarian. Both Harry and Satoshi looked round. "It _was_ Hamlet you asked about, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, how come?" asked Harry.

"I've just checked and we _do_ actually stock a copy of it," explained the librarian, indicating the computer screen in front of her. "It's just checked out at the moment."

"Oh, okay!" said Harry more brightly. Maybe there was hope for this library after all… Though she _did_ still want to check out the Night Class library too. "Thanks for checking for me."

"Not a problem. Have a nice evening."

"So what's your new roommate like?" Satoshi asked, as he followed Harry out of the library. "Kaien said you'd been put with the Ohayashi girl. Is she nice?"

"Oh, yeah. She seems really lovely actually," said Harry. Her father seemed happy with that answer. "Kaien? Is that the headmaster?"

"That's right," confirmed Satoshi. He then grinned. "My best buddy back in the day!"

"Oh god…" Harry did _not_ want to think of her father 'back in the day'. According to her mother he'd been even more of a twit back then than he was now. Harry wasn't even sure if that was possible… "I'd better get back to my dorm now anyway. I'll probably see you around campus."

"Okay then, be good," said Satoshi, kissing the top of her head. It was the standard phrase used frequently within the family – he seemed to forget that Harry was the best-behaved of his children. "And good luck in your classes tomorrow."

"Thanks Dad," said Harry. "Have fun in yours tonight."

"Oh, I'm sure I will. Those Night Class students won't know what hit them when they see how fun my lesson is!" Satoshi enthused.

Harry just laughed at him. He really was insane… Satoshi watched as his daughter gave him a parting wave and disappeared down the corridor, feeling both pleased and also a little sad over the pain that she was sure to endure soon enough. Only her first day and she was already making friends with the creatures of her nightmares… And she had absolutely no idea.


	3. Shadow in the Background

As she'd predicted, the small collection of books that Harry had checked out from the library didn't last her very long – even when she tried to draw them out. She revisited the library on a daily basis over the next several days to see whether the copy of Hamlet had been returned yet, but still had no luck.

She was tempted to just write home and ask Hideki to bring her copy up to the school if he had the chance, but she still had the Night Class library to check out first. Takuma _had_ said that they had a better selection of classics… And that was exactly what Harry needed.

She made her way down to the Night Class building the following morning. Yoko had told her before that the Night Class students studied through the night… So surely that would mean that the aristocrats slept during the day? It all seemed a little bizarre to Harry. For all she knew the building would be shut and she wouldn't even be able to get inside.

That's why she was hoping that by going so early there might still be students up and about. Or at least some of the staff who worked in the Night Class building… As long as she could get into the library then Harry didn't really care.

It seemed that somebody else had the same idea to try the building earlier on. Harry was quite startled to see a brown-haired Day Class girl along the far side of the Night Class building, attempting to peer in through one of the bottom windows. Her bag was sat at her feet on the grass.

"Err, are you alright?" Harry called uncertainly. She was unwilling to follow the girl onto the grass. It looked so perfect that surely there should have been a sign up forbidding students from walking on it.

"I'm fine," replied the girl. "I just can't see inside very well – they put these windows in so high!"

"Is the building locked then?" asked Harry in dismay. Maybe she'd have to come back again later.

"No, everywhere's still open of course," said the girl, still not looking away from the window.

Harry was baffled. "Um… Why don't you just go round the front then? I'm guessing you wanna get inside?"

The girl turned away from the window for the first time and looked at Harry like she was an alien. "Because we're not allowed inside. Why else?"

That just puzzled Harry even more. Nobody had mentioned anything to her about there being anywhere on the campus that was off limits. "Nobody told _me_ we weren't allowed…"

The girl's look turned curious. "Sorry, are you new or something?"

"Yeah, I just started this week," said Harry. Oh great, did that mean everyone _had_ forgotten to mention this to her?

"Oh! Are you Mr. Harima's daughter?" asked the girl, realisation dawning on her face.

"Err, yeah," replied Harry. She wasn't sure she liked already having a reputation here. Especially when it was for being related to her dopey father. "My name's Tamashi, but everyone just calls me Harry."

"Well no wonder nobody said _you_ weren't allowed in here!" exclaimed the girl, suddenly excited. She grabbed her bag and skipped back across the grass towards Harry. "You must get special treatment since your dad's a teacher. I'm Kara Tsukiyama!"

"Oh, nice to meet you," said Harry, a little taken aback. She hadn't expected to get any special treatment since she was the daughter of one of the teachers. Did she really have free reign when all of the other students had to follow stricter rules? "So… Did you want to come in with me then?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind! Let's go!" said Kara enthusiastically, looping her arm through Harry's and directing her round to the front of the building.

Wow… Harry thought to herself. Were all the girls at Cross Academy this bubbly? There was a guard on duty just inside the entrance of the building. He looked up when he saw the two girls come in, but after one look at them he just gave them a simple nod and didn't say anything.

"Wow, that was easy!" said Kara in amazement. "I've never actually been in here before."

"Oh… So I take it you won't know where the library is then?" Harry was already dismayed by the several staircases leading away from the foyer. She had a feeling that this was laid out a lot more complicated than the Day Class building.

"The library?" repeated Kara. "Is _that_ what you're here for?"

"Yeah… Why; is that weird?" Harry knew that not everyone her age enjoyed reading, but was it really _that_ odd that she wanted to check out the library?

"Well I thought you'd be here to _see_ someone," said Kara meaningfully.

"Like who?" Harry was completely flummoxed. "You mean my dad?"

Kara burst out laughing. "Are you serious?! You're really not here to see any of the guys?"

"Well I don't really know anyone in the Night Class," said Harry. She was now totally lost. She had no idea what was so funny…

Kara forced herself to stop laughing. "I'm so sorry, that was really rude of me. I didn't mean to laugh! It's just… Well, most girls try to get in here just to see the Night Class boys. Haven't you seen them around yet?"

"Yeah, I've seen a couple of them already," admitted Harry. She still didn't understand the relevance of that though.

"Don't you have a favourite already?" asked Kara disbelievingly. She couldn't believe how Harry could have seen the small group of students who could all pass for models and not have even the slightest inkling as to who fit her preferences.

"Um, should I?" Was this the protocol at this school? Harry really didn't have a clue. "I don't really know any of them yet."

Kara just laughed again, shaking her head. "You're really something else! So you honestly just want to see the library?"

"Honestly," repeated Harry. She was sure she'd made that clear already…

Kara was certain that she'd never met anyone quite so clueless before… But it was rather endearing, not to mention amusing. She gave Harry a wide smile. "In that case I'll help you find it!"

"Oh, that's okay. You don't have to," reassured Harry.

"No, I insist!" said Kara, grabbing Harry's arm again. "Come on, let's try up this way."

The sweeping staircase led them up to a long, wide corridor lined with several doors. It looked more like they'd found their way up to the dormitories. Even the doors and the carpet along the corridor itself looked much fancier than the ones back in the Sun dorms.

"I don't think this is it," said Harry, looking round.

"I think you're right…" agreed Kara, who was staring along the corridor with wide eyes. These were the _Night Class dorms_. The idea that that was where she was standing was almost scary.

"Let's go back down and try the other stairs," decided Harry. "We'll probably get lost up here."

"Yeah… Okay…" said Kara slowly. She seemed a little more reluctant to move this time, but she did allow Harry to direct her back towards the stairs.

They'd only just reached the top of the staircase when they heard a door open behind them. They both turned round to see Hanabusa walk out onto the corridor, yawning and still in his pyjamas. His usually styled hair was rumpled on one side. He stopped in his tracks when he saw them – a look of complete surprise on his face.

"I _thought_ I heard someone out here!" he said. "But I didn't expect to find two lovely girls waiting for me!"

"Sorry, we got a little lost and came up the wrong stairs," Harry apologised. "We were just… Hey Kara, are you alright?"

The other girl had consequently frozen up and turned a deep shake of pink. She looked like she was just about ready to pass out on the spot. Was she having some kind of an episode?

Hanabusa's face split into a grin. "Oh I wouldn't worry!" he said, slinging an arm over Kara's shoulders. "I've seen it before. She's clearly lovesick over me!"

Lovesick? Harry frowned. Now he was just making things up… But when she looked at Kara again the other girl definitely looked like she was going to faint. She'd seemed so bubbly and talkative just a few minutes ago… But now she seemed unable to move or even say anything.

"Maybe I should take her to the nurse then…" said Harry uncertainly.

Hanabusa waggled a finger in Harry's face. "Don't be silly. There's no cure for _love_!"

_I really have no idea what he's talking about…_ Harry thought to herself. "Well I should at least take her somewhere she can sit down," she insisted. Kara's face was even pinker now, if that was even possible.

"That's a great idea!" Hanabusa enthused, throwing his free arm around Harry's shoulders too and steering them back up the corridor. "Come on, she'll be able to sit down through here."

"Um, okay," said Harry, a little confused. It was nice of him to help Kara, but the other girl and herself were both perfectly capable of walking by themselves.

"Hanabusa, what are you doing?"

The three of them turned around. Takuma was standing in one of the doorways that they'd just passed. Unlike Hanabusa, he was already dressed – wearing a mint green sweater and cream pants. He looked shocked to see Hanabusa with the two girls, particularly a very mystified-looking Harry.

"Oh… Ichijo." Hanabusa seemed a little taken aback to have been spotted, but he quickly regained his composure. "This lovely lady here wasn't feeling well so I was just taking her somewhere where she could sit down." He inclined his head towards Kara.

"If she's ill then she should go to the nurse," said Takuma. "She definitely shouldn't be up here."

"I'll take her to the nurse," Harry offered, sliding out from under Hanabusa's arm and pulling Kara away with her.

Kara glanced from Harry to Takuma and suddenly seemed to come back to life a bit. "It's okay, I can go to the… _nurse_ by myself," she said quickly, looking pointedly at Harry. "You came here to check out the library, _remember_?"

"Oh… Yeah, right." Harry really _had_ forgotten about it in all of the confusion.

"The library?" Takuma repeated, surprised.

"Yeah. You said it had a better selection of classics, right?" Harry asked.

"Err, yes. That's right," replied Takuma. He still seemed completely thrown – that was the last thing he'd expected to hear.

"Then I'll catch you later, Harry," Kara said quickly, making her hasty retreat before anyone else could catch her.

Hanabusa pouted after her. It wasn't often that Day Class girls managed to find a way into the Night Class building. And like so many others, it was obvious that this one was completely smitten with him too… Yet as for Harry, he could already see that _she_ was a lost cause. She seemed to come from a completely different world!

"Hanabusa, you should go back to your room," Takuma advised. Hanabusa opened his mouth to protest so he added, "Before Kaname finds out."

Hanabusa shut his mouth again resolutely. It was clear that the dorm president had a lot of influence over him. "Fine then." He stalked back to his room.

"You shouldn't have come here unsupervised just to check out the library," Takuma informed Harry once Hanabusa had disappeared through one of the doors.

"I… didn't realise," said Harry truthfully. "Nobody told me anything about having to be supervised."

So the Day Class students really _weren't_ allowed into the Night Class building? But then why hadn't she been told that when she'd started here? Maybe Kara really was right about getting special treatment… But she'd still been caught out either way. So did this mean she was in trouble now? She'd never gotten into trouble at school before… She guessed she really was a true Harima after all.

Takuma frowned. "Really? And the guard downstairs didn't try to stop you?"

Harry shook her head. "Kara reckons I must be getting some kind of special treatment because of my dad."

Takuma's frown deepened. Satoshi Harima was one of the few people who knew the truth about the school – the Night Class in particular. Surely he would have been even more restrictive on where his daughter was allowed to go… Yet he seemed to be doing the exact opposite. Takuma guessed he must have had a reason for it, but it didn't make it any less dangerous for Harry.

"Well you should still be careful," he cautioned her. "Especially going around on your own."

"Oh…" Harry didn't really know what to say to that. What was she supposed to be careful of? This was just a boarding school after all.

Takuma seemed to take her response as disappointment because he hastily added, "But since you're here I'll be happy to show you to the library if you'd like."

Harry brightened instantly. "Yes, thank you. That would be great!"

Takuma smiled at her enthusiasm. "Right this way then."

He led Harry back down the staircase, across the foyer and up a different set of stairs. Harry reckoned it was probably the last set that she would have tried with Kara. They would have been wandering around for ages if the Night Class students hadn't found them.

The library was indeed a lot smaller than the one in the Day Class building, which still made Harry apprehensive. But Takuma was right in that the selection here was mostly classics. Harry soon became engrossed as she started reading along the titles. Jane Austen, all of the Bronte sisters, Daniel Defoe… Not to mention they seemed to have every single Dickens _and_ Hardy novel ever made!

Takuma watched in amusement as Harry scanned along every shelf, picked out several books – putting two of them back after second thoughts – selected another from a different shelf, and even stood and turned through several pages of a few others. She was in her own little world again. She'd completely forgotten that Takuma was even there.

By the time Harry reached the Shakespeare section she already had a collection of six books stacked on the floor beside her. She sure hoped that there wasn't a limit to how many she could check out. She read along the spines of the Shakespeare works, feeling a lot more at home. She picked up copies of Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice as she moved down the aisle.

Unfortunately, they didn't have every single Shakespeare like they did with Dickens and Hardy. Who knew why… There were a few big titles missing from the selection – annoyingly, Hamlet was one of them. Harry sighed. It looked like she was going to have to write home to Hideki after all if she wanted to be reading her favourite playwright any time soon.

"You look like you've been more successful this time," Takuma observed brightly. He'd been looking at some other books himself, but when he saw Harry struggling to gather the collection she'd picked out into her arms he helpfully took several from the top for her.

"Thank you," said Harry gratefully, finding it much easier to carry the smaller stack. "I guess I always get a little carried away with books…"

"It's easy to do," Takuma agreed with a smile. "Did you find everything you were looking for?"

"Not everything," admitted Harry. "They still don't seem to have all of Shakespeare's works here."

Takuma eyed the Shakespeare section himself. "Yes, you are right," he agreed. "There are still some excellent ones here though. A Midsummer Night's Dream in particular."

Harry resisted the urge to make a face. "Actually that's probably my least favourite of his."

Takuma looked surprised. "Really? I think it's one of his best works."

"I'm not really a fan of fantastical fiction," Harry explained. "I prefer realism more."

"I suppose fantasy's not for everyone," Takuma conceded. He didn't seem at all offended, despite Harry's blunt difference in opinion. "So was there a particular work you were looking for?"

"I really wanted to get hold of Hamlet," said Harry. "I left my copy at home and I _wish_ I hadn't. I thought the school would have had at least more than one copy of it..."

"Oh!" Realisation dawned on Takuma's face. "You mean the copy from the Day Class library? I'm so sorry, _I'm_ the one who checked that out."

"Really?" Well at least Harry knew that the copy _was_ definitely still in the school and hadn't dropped off the face of the earth just to spite her. "So you still have it?"

"Yes," replied Takuma, looking a little sheepish. "I checked it out and then I'm afraid I got a little distracted by some other novels that I found. But you can borrow it and read it first if you're so desperate to get hold of it?"

"Oh no, that's okay," said Harry awkwardly. "You don't have to do that. I'm just glad to hear that the copy _does_ still exist. I was beginning to think it had been sucked into a black hole."

"Well my room could probably constitute that," Takuma chuckled. "But please, I insist. I probably still won't get round to reading it just yet, so I'd feel guilty knowing you were waiting for it to be returned."

"Err, well, if you're sure…" said Harry uncertainly. She knew that personally if she'd checked a book out she certainly wouldn't be lending it to anyone else. Not until she'd read it herself anyway.

"Completely sure," Takuma insisted cheerfully. "If you check these ones out that you want I'll just run and get it for you from my dorm. I'll leave these ones on the front desk for you."

He was slightly loathed to leave her alone, knowing that she was so oblivious to the rules of the school that kept the other students out of danger. There was a _reason_ that Day Class girls weren't allowed inside the Night Class building after all… But the library assistant here was a lot more forceful and much bigger than the one working the Day Class library. _And_ he was in on the school's secret too. Harry would be safe here at least.

"Err, okay. Thank you. I appreciate it," Harry managed to smile, still a little stunned by how nice he was being.

"Just wait here for me," Takuma requested. "I'll only be a few minutes."

As Takuma hurried off, Harry took one quick last look at the Shakespeare works on the shelf. She ended up grabbing a copy of Othello to add to her stack before making her way over to the desk at the front of the library. Takuma had left the other books there like he'd said.

"Err, all of these. And these ones are mine too." Harry put the books down on the desk and indicated the ones that were already there.

The rather gruff-looking library assistant rumbled a response and began scanning through the books. Thankfully there _didn't_ seem to be a limit on how many could be checked out at a time. Once they'd all been scanned Harry was able to fit about two thirds of them into the shoulder bag that she'd brought with her again. She'd have to carry the rest separately, but at least it was a significantly smaller stack now.

Takuma was true to his word and he returned within minutes, carrying a slightly battered copy of Hamlet. Compared to Harry's one at home though, it was in excellent condition. "Thanks so much," she said gratefully as Takuma added it to the pile in her arms for her. "I'll bring it back to you as soon as possible."

"It's fine, really," smiled Takuma. "Take as much time as you need. Though I have to say I'm surprised you like Hamlet so much seeing as you seemed so against fantasy."

Harry was astonished by that remark. "What do you mean?"

"Well people could argue that it has a fantastical element to it with Hamlet meeting the ghost of his murdered father," Takuma pointed out.

Harry just shook her head. "And people could also argue that the idea behind that is merely symbolic – the ghost being a reflection of Hamlet's inner conscience and showing how his faith is challenged."

Takuma blinked, looking just as surprised by _her_ answer. But then he laughed. "I always thought I was well versed in Shakespeare, but you make me feel like a novice."

Harry smiled sheepishly. Oh great, she was coming off like a know-it-all again… "Well you'll be able to beat me on knowledge of A Midsummer Night's Dream any day."

Takuma chuckled. "I'll take what I can get."

The bell rang then, signalling the start of morning lessons for the Day Class students. Harry grimaced. She hadn't realised how late it had gotten… She was going to have to quickly run back to the Sun dorms first. She didn't want to be lugging so many books round her classes with her.

"Looks like I'd better get going," she said apologetically. It was nice having someone she could talk to about classics. None of her family or friends had ever understood her obsession with Shakespeare.

"Yes, I wouldn't want to make you late for class," agreed Takuma. "Here, I'll escort you back outside."

"Oh, that's okay," said Harry hastily. She really wasn't used to people being so overly nice. "Don't worry about it – I'll be able to find my own way out."

"If you're sure…" said Takuma hesitantly.

Harry really didn't understand why everyone seemed so concerned about her at this school. "I'll be fine," she reassured.

"Well in that case it was nice talking to you again," said Takuma pleasantly. "I hope you enjoy Hamlet again."

"I will," Harry smiled. "Thanks again. I'll bring it back as soon as I'm finished."

Takuma watched as she headed back towards the stairs, still quite amused. Her comment about symbolism had been impressive… There weren't many students here who were quite so invested in literature. It was rather refreshing to know that the classics hadn't died out with everyone.

But he was still concerned that her father was allowing her to roam around the campus wherever she pleased, despite knowing the real dangers behind the school. Again he was sure that Mr. Harima must have a reason for it, but it just still didn't feel safe…

Well if Takuma had to keep an eye on Harry himself then that was what he'd do. She was a pleasant enough girl – not to mention more than a little quirky – so he was happy to do so. And from what he'd seen so far she seemed to be a bit socially clueless… He had a feeling that she'd probably need protecting in more ways than one.

**XXX**

**Author's Note!**

Just wanted to add on here that as of a new idea, this story is now being written in conjunction with ParisWriter's story "Love Game" (who also owns Kara). She figured it'd be fun to interlink our stories as if they were happening at the same time and of course I agreed!

So please check out her end of the story too to see the scene from Kara's point of view and also why she was breaking into the Night Class dorms in the first place. If you have any trouble with the search you can find her under my favourite authors ;)


	4. Unsuspecting Victim

Now that she actually had Hamlet in her hands – well, room if she was being technical; she didn't actually carry the book with her everywhere she went – Harry felt much happier. She was a very fast reader and could easily sit with a novel for hours at a time. Most books never lasted her long at all. But when it came to a few of her utmost favourites, she much preferred to savour them. Hamlet, of course, was one of them.

And when she tried to savour books in this way she ended up with a lot more free time than when she did her usual speed reading. Most people just saw Harry as a bit of an odd bookworm… But she still enjoyed doing other things. Really.

When the following afternoon rolled round Harry realised that it was already two weeks since she'd started at Cross Academy and that she hadn't done any of the drawings she'd promised to do for her best friend Kotani, even with being at a different school. He'd said that there was no rush, that she could mail them to him whenever, but she felt she should have at _least_ made a start on them by now.

So that afternoon Harry had put Hamlet aside, gathered all of her drawing materials and Kotani's notes together, and headed down to the Day Class library. She'd already thought several times before that it would be the best place for drawing since it was generally so quiet. That and she'd have a lot more space than the tiny desk that she and Yoko had to share in their dorm.

But when she got there she found the library to be unusually busy. They had some mock tests on Monday… Did that mean that _all_ of these students were doing some last minute cramming before then? Harry was grateful she'd already done her revision earlier in the week. She didn't think she'd be able to handle the pressure of leaving it so late.

She grabbed the only empty table near one of the windows and laid her bag on top of it. She was just about to sit down when she heard a familiar voice on the other side of the bookcase beside her. She peeked round the corner to see Kara Tsukiyama sat with several other girls at the far end of the library. Harry didn't recognise any of them, but she was glad to see that Kara seemed to be feeling better since their visit to the Night Class building.

"Kara?" Harry gave the girl a small wave and made her way over to their table.

Kara smiled when she saw her. "Hey, Harry! Nice to see you again."

"You too." Harry noticed that the other girls were all looking at her so she gave them her usual introduction. "Hi, I'm Tamashi Harima. But everyone just calls me Harry."

"Harima? As in Mr. Harima?" the girl with glasses asked, looking up from the textbook she'd been reading.

"He's her father," Kara answered helpfully. "Harry, these are my friends: Danielle Rothson, Rin Takeda, Megumi Nakano – who prefers to be called Meg – Juni Hasimoto and Shiori Itou."

"It's nice to meet you all," Harry greeted them politely.

"My, my…" The brunette who Kara had introduced as Meg got up from her seat and stalked towards Harry. "You have _such_ pretty eyes."

"Oh… Thank you," said Harry, surprised and a little embarrassed.

Meg leant in extremely close until their faces were only inches apart, staring deeply into her eyes. Harry shifted uncomfortably. _Why_ were all the girls here either overly friendly or just really bubbly? But then Meg simply winked at her and whispered, "_Gorgeous_", under her breath before pulling away and returning to her seat.

Harry had no idea what had just happened. Still feeling dazed, she returned her attention to Kara and tentatively laid a hand on her shoulder. "I, um, wanted to make sure you were feeling okay… You seemed pretty out of it yesterday."

"_Oh_? What's this now?" Shiori cut in, addressing her friend. "Did you have _help_ breaking into the Moon dorms, Kara?"

Breaking in? Harry frowned, feeling confused. But they hadn't done anything of the sort – they'd simply walked through the doors. That hardly classified as breaking in. The guard had even acknowledged their presence. And it wasn't like they'd _intended_ to end up in the Moon dormitories of all places…

"Can we discuss this later please?" Kara hissed at the redhead.

"Hmm. But I want to discuss it _now_."

Everyone's heads turned at the sound of the new voice. Hanabusa had appeared behind Harry, looking the epitome of casual with his hands in his pockets and a semi-bored expression on his face. Meg waved him off disinterestedly.

"Shouldn't you be getting ready to greet your many admirers, pretty boy?"

"Actually I had some business with Miss Tsukiyama that I wanted to attend before class," said Hanabusa, crouching down at the edge of the table to address Kara directly.

Harry felt a little rude eavesdropping on their quiet exchange and instead fixed her attention on one of the bookcases opposite, absent-mindedly reading along the titles on the spines. Hanabusa must have come to check on the Day Class girl after her little episode in the Moon dorms… That was actually quite sweet. And not exactly what Harry would have expected from him.

The next thing she knew Hanabusa was then straightening up again. "_Enchanté_, ladies," he bid them before leaving.

Harry glanced after his retreating back, still a little surprised. He came across as a bit more pompous than the other Night Class students from what she'd seen so far – certainly the kind of attitude she'd originally expected of the aristocrats – but he clearly had a soft side too if he'd come all the way to the Day Class building before his lessons just to see if Kara was alright.

Meg noisily scooted her chair closer towards Kara, half crashing into one of her other friends. Rin, was it? "Come on, what did he say to you? It must have been good – you looked like you were practically on the verge of an orgasm when he said it!"

Harry felt her cheeks burn. Maybe she should have been tuning out for _this_ conversation too… Rin, the girl with the braids, clearly thought so too. "Meg!" she exclaimed, looking scandalised.

Shiori then butted in before Meg could say anything worse. "Kara, I must say how proud I am of you. You actually _talked_ to him this time!"

"I barely said a single sentence to him," Kara grumbled.

"It was worlds better than before though," Harry pointed out reassuringly. "You looked like you were about to pass out or have a seizure or something."

She hadn't been listening to Kara and Hanabusa's little conversation, but she remembered the girl's reaction when Hanabusa had found them outside the dorms. Had Kara not been ill at all? Was that really all it had came down to – that Kara simply had a _crush_ on the Night Class boy? That was what her friends seemed to be implying anyway…

Sure enough… "That's normal," the others all replied in unison.

"Kara's been obsessed with Aido since she first saw him," Rin explained.

So that _was_ it, Harry thought to herself in wonder. She was amazed she'd even gotten it right – she wasn't really that clued up when it came to romance. She didn't get subtle hints or so-called body language… Unless she was told things straight then she was blissfully oblivious to it all.

Kara protested vehemently to Rin's comment and also then to an added remark by Danielle – their curvier, blonde friend. Meg had to intervene loudly. "Bitches, stop fighting!" The librarian irritably shushed her from across the room, to which she responded, "Shut up, you old hag! We're trying to have a conversation here!"

Her other friends all burst out laughing, whereas Harry felt quite embarrassed that the brunette would speak to an elder with such disrespect. The librarian clearly didn't take too kindly to it either, because she proceeded to bluntly asking the group to leave for causing such a disruption.

"Err…" Harry stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to do. Did that mean she was getting kicked out with the rest of them? But she hadn't done anything wrong! All she'd wanted to do was sit and get some drawing done in peace…

"It's okay, dear. I know you weren't sat with them," the librarian reassured her. "Those are your things on that table over there, aren't they?"

"Um, yeah…" said Harry hesitantly.

She glanced back at Kara and her friends, worried that they might begrudge her for escaping the same punishment – even if she _hadn't_ been one of the ones making all the noise – but they were too busy hastily stuffing things back into their bags and muttering about the librarian to notice. Harry used the opportunity to scuttle safely back to her table.

Harry wasn't sure if it was because of the librarian's sudden display of wrath, but the library seemed to have now significantly emptied. That was fine with her – she was much more comfortable with the quieter environment. She made herself comfy and pulled out her pencil set, Kotani's notes, a pack of specialist paper and her sketchbook.

Almost all of the drawings that she'd done for this project so far she'd already passed onto her friend before leaving for Cross Academy. The only ones left in her sketchbook were the original character designs that they'd worked on together, so that she had materials to refer back to.

She pulled out a piece of paper and started outlining panels, counting out how many she'd need for the first page, looking back at Kotani's notes before filling them in. They'd gone over everything beforehand and highlighted which parts of his storyline were most important, which needed more panels to focus on, which drawings should have dialogue bubbles and which ones shouldn't…

"I'm starting to think you must live here."

Harry looked up to see Takuma standing over her, looking cheerful as usual and carrying a small stack of books. She smiled. "And I'm starting to think that you must be following me. You're not _that_ desperate to be reunited with Hamlet, are you?"

"Oh, no, that's not what I…" Takuma then stopped, noticing the amused look on Harry's face and realising that she was just teasing him. He chuckled. "I mean, that's right. I'm scarier than any librarian on a rampage."

"Hey, she actually went on one earlier!" Harry joked. "You missed it – she cleared half the library out!"

Takuma laughed. "Actually I saw everyone leaving. I think most of the girls were just following after Hanabusa."

"Oh…" Would so many of them really have left just to follow one Night Class boy?

"Oh wow, are you drawing _manga_?" Takuma had suddenly spotted the papers on the table in front of her.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I am…"

"Can I see?"

"Um, sure…" Harry passed the papers over, bemused by the boy's enthusiasm. "I haven't done much yet though." She'd only actually lined five panels so far.

Takuma looked over the drawings eagerly. "Is this all original work?"

"Yeah, my friend wrote the storyline. I'm just the artist," explained Harry. "I may read a lot, but I have zero creativity myself. I couldn't write anything to save my life!"

Takuma just laughed at her, shaking his head. "I don't know how you can draw like this and still believe you're not creative. This is really fantastic!"

Harry felt the heat rush to her cheeks. She wasn't really used to compliments – nobody besides Kotani had ever really shown an interest in her artwork. "Oh, err, thank you… But it's nothing special or anything…"

"Now, now, there's no need to be modest…" assured Takuma, waggling his finger at her. "So what's the story? Or is it a secret?"

Harry was amazed that he was so interested, but she still felt incredibly flattered by it. She was quite proud of her and her friend's little project. "It's about two kids – two friends. Only one of them has a brain tumour… It's a pretty depressing story really, but I always liked the idea behind it." She still commended Kotani for coming up with such an emotional storyline – she knew that she couldn't have done so in a million years.

"Wow… It sounds really bittersweet."

"It is," agreed Harry, amused again by his obvious interest. "So are you a closet manga fan or something?"

Takuma smiled as he passed the drawings back to her. "Guilty as charged. And what about you?"

"I haven't really read many," Harry confessed. "I can appreciate the artwork behind it, but I've only really read the ones that my friend has. And they were all about demons and mutants and things…"

"Ah yes, I almost forgot about your aversion to fantasy," said Takuma.

"It's not an _aversion_ exactly…" Harry began to protest, before realising that Takuma was still smiling at her and that this time it was _him_ who was only teasing. She then couldn't help smiling back. "Yeah, okay, maybe you're right…"

"I guess with manga it _would_ be difficult to find a series without some kind of fantastical element to it," Takuma considered. "So will you try to get your one published when it's finished?"

"Who knows?" Harry half shrugged. "We'll certainly try, so it'd be nice if it actually went somewhere…"

"I'll have to buy a copy if it does," Takuma promised.

"Hey, if I'm feeling generous I may give you one for free," Harry said teasingly.

Takuma smiled again, shifting the books in his arms. "Alright. I'll hold you to that."

Harry's gaze trailed down towards the books that he was carrying. "So are you returning books or checking more out?"

"Returning some," said Takuma, still smiling. "I've been naughtily holding onto these when I know it'll probably take me a long time to get round to them."

"You seem to have a habit of doing that," Harry mused. Poor Hamlet had met a similar fate.

"One I'm trying to kick," Takuma chuckled. "It seems I get too greedy when it comes to books."

"I know that feeling," said Harry sympathetically. "You saw how many I checked out before – it was a two-person job to carry them all!"

Takuma laughed again. "I did! I hope Hamlet hasn't been neglected because of it, like what I did?"

"No, Hamlet's definitely been given priority," Harry replied with a grin. "But since he's special he gets to be savoured a bit more than most. I'm taking extra care not to read too much at once."

Takuma's smile widened. "In that case I'm glad. It sounds like you're enjoying it." He glanced up at the clock on the wall opposite and his eyes suddenly widened in surprise. "Oh my… I'm sorry Harry, but I'm going to have to hurry and return these or I'll be late for class!"

Bewildered, Harry looked round at the clock too. "Whoa, is that _really_ the time?" The Night Class lessons were indeed about to start. They'd been talking for ages!

Takuma jogged the books in his arms. "Silly me… We clearly got carried away! I'm sorry I disturbed you for so long."

"Don't worry about it," Harry assured him sincerely. She realised that she really did enjoy talking to him. "I hope you make your class on time!"

"Me too!" Takuma laughed, heading towards the librarian's desk as he called back over his shoulder. "Hopefully I'll see you around again."

Harry watched in amusement as he went and clumsily tipped the stack of books onto the front desk. She'd never quite noticed before how scatterbrained he seemed… The librarian didn't look very impressed by his lack of organisation. In fact, she was staring at the books like they were completely alien to her.

"We don't stock any of these here," Harry heard her say. She hadn't even needed to check the computer. "You're in the wrong library."

Harry had to try not to laugh as she watched. _All_ of the books he was trying to return were from the other library? He was even more scatterbrained than she'd thought!

Takuma seemed completely nonplussed by the whole thing. "Oh, really? I don't know what's wrong with me today… I'm sorry, I'll take them back to the Night Class library. Thank you."

And with that he headed back out with all of the books in his arms again. Harry was still chortling to herself even long after he'd left. He really was an odd soul… She found it hard to concentrate on her drawings though after that, and eventually ended up packing her things away and leaving herself.

She bumped into Yoko on her way out. "Oh, hey!" she greeted. "I was just on my way back to the dorm."

"Me too!" Yoko replied brightly. "I just went and asked Mr. Miyamoto if he knew what questions were going to be on the practice test… He wouldn't tell me though."

"Typical," said Harry, making a face. Mr. Miyamoto was their math teacher. Math wasn't either of their strong suits, no matter how hard they tried to study for it.

As they headed back towards the Sun dormitories together Harry spotted Kara again. She was walking in the same direction as them. "Hey, Kara!" she called, waving her over.

Kara's head turned and she waved back when she saw Harry, jogging over to her and Yoko. "Oh, hi again!"

"Sorry you got kicked out of the library earlier," Harry said hesitantly. She wasn't really sure why she was apologising, but she did still feel a bit guilty that she'd been allowed to stay when Kara and her friends hadn't.

Kara just laughed and dismissed the apology. "Don't worry about it. That's just Meg – that kind of thing happens all the time."

"Oh. Good. I think…" said Harry uncertainly. "Anyway… I just wanted to introduce you to my roommate, Yoko Ohayashi. Yoko, this is Kara Tsukiyama."

Yoko shook the other girl's hand enthusiastically. "Nice to meet you!"

"You too," Kara replied. "I think we're actually in the same Chemistry class." She recalled seeing the smaller girl's bouncy black hair bobbing up and down in the front row of their classroom.

"Oh yeah, that's right!"

The three of them carried on chatting as they continued back towards the dorms with the sun beginning to set in the sky above them. They passed two other Day Class girls on the way, both of whom glared at them as they walked by. Harry recognised them from the library earlier – they were some of the ones who had left after Kara and her friends…

"So, um, do all the girls here like that Aido guy from the Night Class?" Harry asked, remembering what Takuma had suggested earlier.

She could also recall how crazy the girls had all acted on her first day here upon seeing the Night Class students. They'd been glaring at her back then, after Hanabusa had helped pick her up off the floor. She felt like she was starting to understand some of it a little better now…

"Could you tell?" said Kara gloomily. "It's almost impossible to get noticed by any of the Night Class guys when there's so much competition. _Especially_ with Aido."

Harry had never thought about it like that before… "But he came all the way down to the library to check on you," she pointed out. She was by no means an expert on this kind of thing, but surely that was a good sign? "So he clearly _has_ noticed you."

Kara looked suddenly surprised by Harry's theory. "Erm, I guess, but… I don't think it was like that…" She looked a little sheepish about something.

"So you're an Aido fan then?" Yoko asked Kara, almost sympathetically.

"Yup. Like practically every other girl in this school."

"He _is_ pretty cute…" Yoko agreed. She then laughed, seeing the look on Kara's face. "Oh don't worry; I'm not actually interested in him or anything. I _definitely_ wouldn't be interested in the competition."

"What exactly do you like about him?" asked Harry. Both girls looked at her and she realised straightaway that the way she'd worded it probably sounded rude. "I mean… I didn't intend to sound rude or anything. I'm just curious why _so many_ girls seem to like him so much…"

"It's his eyes," said Kara suddenly without needing any prompting, her voice taking on a dreamy edge. "I feel like I could get lost in them… Don't you think they're just the most wonderful shade of blue?"

Yoko looked amused by Kara's reaction – she sounded like she was writing a poem – whereas Harry just felt clueless again. "Um, I dunno… Personally I prefer green."

Kara snapped back to attention at that. "_Oh_?" _Green eyes_, huh?

Yoko joined in too, grinning. "And what do you mean by that?"

"What do I mean by what?" Harry was completely nonplussed. "I just mean I like green. I'm not really a blue person…"

Yoko started laughing and Kara just stared at Harry in amazement. Was she for real? Could she seriously not tell what they were talking about? She'd already been able to tell that the girl was pretty clueless when it came to guys, but this just took the cake…

Yoko clapped a hand on Kara's shoulder. "I figured she'd say something like that. Don't worry, that's just Harry for you." She may have only been rooming with Harry for a few weeks, but it was pretty easy to tell where the blonde girl stood on romance.

"Did she really not get what we were implying?" Kara asked the smaller girl.

"Hey, don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Harry protested huffily, causing them both to laugh more. "And stop laughing at me!"

"We're not laughing at you, we're laughing _with_ you," Yoko insisted, looping her arm through Harry's.

"Yeah, don't worry. We'll help you out with these things," Kara assured her teasingly, taking her other arm.

"Yep! We'll teach you the ways of the world."

"All about the birds and the bees."

"_Huh_? What does _that_ have to do with anything?!"

"Oh Harry, we have _so_ much to teach you…"

**XXX**

**Author's Note!**

Just when you thought Harry was showing signs of being a little less clueless… she's back to square one LOL. I actually missed writing Satoshi in this chappie fff T_T (he's actually turned out to be more popular than I expected!)

Getting in a bit more with the Haruma though /shot

In case you didn't know this story is actually being written in conjunction with ParisWriter's Vampire Knight story "Love Game". So obviously go check it out if you want to read from Kara's point of view! Kara and crew all belong to her.


	5. Darkness in the Valley

A figure in black stood tall in the doorway. His image seemed to flicker as he stepped inside, like a badly programmed television screen. One moment he was still framed by the doorway, then he was suddenly standing two feet to his left, then back again...

The outline flickered again and suddenly the figure was right in front of her, eyes flashing red and mouth opening to reveal dripping, pointed teeth...

Harry gasped and abruptly sat up, breathing hard. There was sweat on her forehead. _It was just a dream, _she automatically tried to tell herself. _You're only in your dorm room._ But it was hard to believe when every shadow around her looked threatening and ominous.

She reached back, hand scrambling for her bedside lamp. She found the switch and a dull light was thrown across the room - too bright for her still sleepy eyes, but proving that there really wasn't anything hiding in the shadows.

Harry sighed and pulled her knees up towards her, resting her chin on them. Just a dream... Another one of _those_ dreams. Like most kids she'd feared ghosts and demons and the monsters under her bed. Only most kids probably still didn't have the same recurring nightmares when they were much older.

She hugged her knees tighter, half wishing that she'd brought one of her old stuffed animals with her to the academy. She knew she was too old to rely on them now, but she liked having something to hold onto in the night. A pillar of comfort in the darkness...

"What's going on? Are you alright?"

Harry jumped and turned to see Yoko sitting up in bed too. She'd completely forgotten that she wasn't the only person in the room. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I just had a nightmare, that's all."

"Don't worry about it," Yoko reassured her. She looked concerned. "Are you sure you're alright? You look pretty freaked out."

"Yeah, I'm fine." Harry forced a smile. "I used to have nightmares quite often - I just haven't had one in a while."

"You can leave the lamp on if you like," Yoko suggested sympathetically.

"Oh, no, I'll be alright," said Harry automatically. She'd slept with the light on plenty of times in the past, but she could hardly expect her roommate to have to do the same.

"It's fine, really," Yoko insisted with a smile. "My sister used to sleep with the light on sometimes, so I'm used to it."

Harry had to admit that that did sound preferable. She wasn't a big fan of the dark. She normally didn't mind so much when she knew that she wasn't alone, but her nightmare had brought some of her old fear back and left her feeling more edgy than usual.

"Thanks," she said gratefully. "Feel free to turn it off though if it starts to bother you."

Yoko just laughed as she lay back down. "Don't worry about it," she repeated.

Harry did the same and purposely turned so that she was facing the lamp. She was loathed to fall asleep again, not wanting to fall back into the same nightmare - a conundrum she'd faced many times when she was younger - and it was a long time before she eventually gave in to the tiredness weighing down on her eyelids...

_"Daddy! Daddy!"_

_The door flew open and light filled the room. "Harry! What is it?"_

_"There was a monster in my room!"_

_The room was clearly empty. "There's nobody here. You were just dreaming."_

_"But he was stood right there in the doorway!"_

_"Harry, the door was closed when I came in. It's been closed all night."_

_"But he was there! I saw him - he was coming to get me!"_

_The bed creaked and sank in the middle as he sat down and pulled her into his arms. "It was just a nightmare. Don't worry; he's not going to get you."_

_"How do you know?"_

_"Because daddy won't let anyone hurt you."_

_"Promise?"_

_A chuckle. "Promise. Now what made you think it was a monster?"_

_"He had red eyes and scary teeth."_

_"Just because someone looks scary doesn't make them a monster. Maybe he just really needed a good dentist."_

_"Mommy says monsters don't exist..."_

_"Mommy just doesn't want you to worry. There are lots of different kinds of monsters, but you can't always tell who the bad ones are."_

_"So monsters do exist?"_

_"I'm just saying you shouldn't be so scared of things just because you don't understand them. You've gotta give the monsters a chance too."_

_"But what if they try to eat me?"_

_"Well... then that's when daddy's allowed to come and get them for you."_

XXX

Harry didn't sleep much after her nightmare. She felt like she'd only just drifted off when her alarm starting beeping. Urgh... She got up and dressed herself in a zombie-like trance. Being so tired made it difficult to do the buttons up properly on her uniform. It then made it even more awkward to get her contacts in.

"Shoot," she muttered, as the contact lens that she was trying to put in slipped and fell from her fingertip. Where had it gone? She inspected the sink that she was standing over, but couldn't see it anywhere. It must have fallen to the floor... "Aww man..."

"Err, Harry? Are you okay?" Yoko tentatively pushed at the bathroom door that her roommate had left ajar to find the blonde crouching on the floor. "What are you doing?"

"I dropped one of my contacts," explained Harry, still searching the floor.

"Oh, I never knew you wore contacts! Here, I'll help you look," Yoko offered, getting down onto her knees beside her.

With her much keener - and less tired - eyesight Yoko was able to find the almost invisible contact lens on the tiled floor. Worried of damaging it, she pointed it out to Harry and let her pick it up herself.

"Thanks a lot," said Harry gratefully. "I think I would have been on my knees for ages otherwise."

"No problem," Yoko smiled. She then got a good look at Harry's eyes. "Wow, your eye's a really different colour with it!"

The one eye that Harry had been struggling to get the contact lens into was a much paler blue - almost like a husky's eyes. Harry was grateful she'd already managed to put the other contact in first. "Err, yeah. They had the coloured ones on discount, so they were cheaper than clear ones, but they didn't have any my shade."

"That's a shame," said Yoko. "It's such a pretty colour."

"Oh, err, thanks," said Harry awkwardly. She diverted her attention by washing the rogue contact in her lens cleaning solution. She really hoped it hadn't picked up too much muck from its venture to the floor.

"Um, should you really wear it if it's been on the floor?" Yoko asked uncertainly. "Haven't you got any glasses you can wear as a backup?"

"Nope. I only have these," replied Harry. That wasn't technically a lie - she didn't have glasses since she didn't actually _need_ them. "It should be okay though as long as I make sure I clean it enough..."

"Oh, okay. But you may wanna hurry because classes start in ten minutes," Yoko pointed out helpfully.

"Oh great..."

Harry sent Yoko on ahead whilst she carried on trying to fit the troublesome contact into her tired and now slightly sore eye. She eventually succeeded but was then forced to run to her first class, and even then she was still a few minutes late. Thankfully their teacher was too, so her unusual tardiness went unnoticed.

As the morning went on though, Harry started to worry if she'd cleaned the contact lens thoroughly enough. Her eye was becoming more and more irritated and she was worried that there could be dirt in it. You had to be extremely careful with contacts and - even though she'd tried cleaning it as best as she could - dropping it on the floor wasn't exactly careful.

She was loathed to rub her eye for fear of making it worse, so she kept blinking the eye in question furiously in the hope of dislodging any dirt. She noticed one of the Day Class boys, who was sat opposite, was staring at her. Cringing, she looked away. She probably looked like an idiot with her erratic blinking.

As she turned her head she realised that Yoko was watching her with an astonished look on her face. "What?" asked Harry, confused.

"Oh, nothing," replied Yoko, her expression now unreadable.

Not knowing what else to think about it, Harry attempted to return her attention to what the teacher was saying, still trying to ignore the painful sensation in her eye. She couldn't wait for the chance to get back to her dorm. She could hardly pop the contact out in the middle of class, especially without the right cleaning solution.

They had a five-minute gap between each lesson in order to give them time to get to their next classroom. As they filed out of their math room, Harry was seriously considering making a dash back to their dormitory to try and sort her contact out. But she knew that it would take longer than five minutes and she doubted that she'd be so lucky if she was late for another lesson.

"Hey, Harima!"

Harry turned to see the Day Class boy who'd been staring at her earlier hurrying over to them. "Oh hi, err..." She realised then that she didn't actually know his name, so she awkwardly bypassed that part. "What's up?"

"Err, well, I was just thinking... You're pretty smart, right?" said the boy nervously.

"Um, okay?" Harry wasn't really sure how to answer that. 'Smart' wasn't really the most specific definition - it could mean lots of things.

"Well, I just... What I mean is math's kinda hard, y'know? So I was wondering if maybe - if you're not too busy or anything... maybe you wouldn't mind tutoring me?" he suggested hesitantly.

Harry felt confused. Why was he asking _her_? Their teacher had posted their scores from the last test up on the board - hers had been abysmal. She'd been second bottom of the entire class. _She_ was the one who could do with being tutored!

"Um, I don't know if you've mixed me up with someone else or something, but math _really_ isn't one of my strong suits," she told him. "You should ask someone else to tutor you."

The boy looked totally surprised by her answer, which just confused Harry even more. Surely he wouldn't be happy if she'd agreed to it and then he'd found out that her math skills were even worse than his... Weirdly, he then looked towards Yoko for help.

"Err, Yoko's kinda in the same boat as me when it comes to math," Harry added helpfully. "Maybe you could try asking Aizawa. He got the highest score on our last test - he'd probably be your best bet."

The boy didn't know what else to say to that. "Um, okay, thanks..." he mumbled. He then traipsed off, looking dejected.

As soon as he was out of sight Yoko suddenly burst into peals of laughter. "Oh god, that was so funny - the look on his face!" She managed to control herself. "But I thought you liked him! Are you playing hard to get or something? Because I think that was overkill..."

"What? Hang on... _What_?" Harry struggled to process everything her roommate had just said, as they started walking towards their next class. "What are you talking about? I've never even spoken to him before - I can't really say I have an opinion on him."

"So why were you winking at him in class? Come on, you can't blame the poor guy if you were giving him mixed signals."

Harry gaped at her, realising what she meant. "No, no, _no_! I wasn't _winking_ at him!"

"But I saw you!"

"_No_, it was my _contact_! I don't think I cleaned it enough - it's been bugging me all morning!"

Yoko stared at her, a look of dawning on her face, before she started laughing again. "No way, are you serious?! Oh man, that poor boy!"

Harry still felt like she was missing something. "What does it matter? He only wanted me to tutor him - I'm sure he can find someone else. And I still don't get why he asked me of all people... I suck at math!"

Yoko just gave her a very pointed look. "You do realise he was trying to ask you out, right?"

"_Huh_?" Harry stopped dead in her tracks, bewildered. "Then why was he going on about needing a math tutor?"

"Because it was a _line_!" Yoko pointed out. "He was just using it as an excuse to see you outside of class... Have you seriously never heard of anyone doing that before?"

"I can honestly say that nobody's ever tried to ask me out in my life," said Harry truthfully, quite relieved by the idea. Yoko had just made it even more clear that she had no clue when it came to this kind of thing.

"That you know of," Yoko giggled. "Who knows how many guys you've accidentally rejected in the past!"

"Oh come on, I didn't _mean_ to!" Harry protested.

But Yoko refused to let her forget about it all morning. She still found the whole thing hilarious. Harry's contact continued to bug her too, but this time she decided she was better off just putting up with it. She certainly didn't want anyone else to get the wrong idea...

Oh but come on, would she seriously ever _wink_ at anyone?

She was endlessly grateful when lunch eventually rolled round and dashed straight off to the Sun dorms, telling Yoko she'd meet her in the lunch hall. Yoko reassured her not to worry since she wanted to go and ask Mrs. Saitou about their History assignment first thing anyway.

"Ah, that feels so much better," Harry sighed to herself once she was finally able to pop the contact lens out over the sink.

She inspected it up close under the bathroom light, but there still didn't seem to be any dirt on it. Perhaps she'd just irritated her eye by trying to get it in so many times in the first place... Either way she wasn't taking any chances - she plunged it straight into her lens cleaning solution.

Her left eye was still pretty sore and also noticeably red now that she was looking at it in the mirror. It probably wasn't a good idea to put her contact back in... Not today at least. Eyes were delicate things and hers was sore enough already.

But now she was faced with a dilemma. Which was the worst option - taking the other contact out too or just leaving the one in? She was going to have oddly matched eyes either way...

Looking into the mirror again Harry knew what the better option was, even if it wasn't the one she wanted. It was much more obvious leaving one contact in. One eye was a dull sea blue, whereas the other was frosty sky. Hopefully if she left them both out then people probably wouldn't notice anything unusual as long as they didn't look too closely at her...

Sighing, Harry reluctantly took the other contact out and added it to the cleaning solution alongside its partner. At least she only had two classes this afternoon. She just had to get through the rest of lunch, keep her head down in class, then she could escape back to the dorm for the remainder of the day. That was the plan anyway.

Harry reached the lunch hall before Yoko did. She wasn't particularly hungry, as per usual, so she grabbed an apple and a salad box and went to sit at one of the only empty tables. By the time Yoko joined her there were only fifteen minutes left of their lunch hour, so her friend was more interested in hurriedly making her way through a bread roll and a bowl of pasta than anything else. She either didn't notice anything unusual about Harry's eyes or she simply didn't mention it.

Huh. Maybe all of Harry's worrying had been for nothing after all... But she still kept her head down in their afternoon classes like she'd originally intended, just in case. The same boy from earlier was also in their last class of the day, which made Harry feel even more uncomfortable now that her friend had revealed the real intent behind the boy's request.

"Do you think I should apologise?" Harry hissed to Yoko. "And explain that I just didn't understand what he meant?"

"No, you can't do that!" Yoko protested.

"Why not?"

"Well you don't actually _want_ to go out with him, do you?"

Harry quickly shook her head. She had no experience in that area and she didn't intend to change that any time soon. "Of course not! I don't even know him!"

"Then you can't tell him that you misunderstood. If he knows that's the case then he'll probably ask you out properly," explained Yoko. "And you can't reject him twice - that'd be a bit much!"

"So I should just let him think that I knew what he meant and that I was just kinda rude about it?" Harry asked, feeling confused. She didn't think she wanted to be thought about in that way...

"Sometimes that's the better option," said Yoko.

Wow, Harry _really_ didn't understand boys... She'd clearly been better off when they'd just left her alone. But at least she knew to be careful not to inadvertently wink at any of them now. Still, she purposely avoided looking in the Day Class boy's direction for the rest of the lesson, just to be on the safe side.

Overall, the afternoon didn't turn out as bad as Harry had expected. She was still relieved when the bell rang though. Now she could escape back to their dormitory and hole up there until tomorrow - when hopefully she'd be able to get her contacts back in without any problems.

She still had two acts of Hamlet left that she could read - her savouring technique had been doing quite well - but she couldn't help but feel that she should make use of the time to get some of her homework done. She still had a whole physics paper to work on. Though she actually quite liked science, physics was the one aspect that escaped the same opinion. There were too many numbers involved. Harry didn't do numbers.

If she was going to work on her physics homework though, she was going to need a textbook to refer back to. The last time she'd picked up the question sheet she'd decided instantly that it was stuff she didn't know the answers to and had put it straight back in her folder. She supposed she could run and pick one up from the library... If she was quick then hopefully she could get in and out without having to talk to anyone.

So she told Yoko she'd catch her later and then bustled down towards the library with her gaze fixed firmly on the floor. If it had worked in class then it would work again now, right? Wrong.

She forgot to factor in the fact that she was actually in motion this time and barrelled straight into someone just as she entered the library. "Ow! Oh, I'm really sorry! I didn't see you there..."

"That's okay! Are you alright?"

Harry realised then both that the voice was very familiar and that the hand steadying her arm was wearing the white cuff of the Night Class uniform blazer. "Yeah, I'm fine... Are you _sure_ you're not following me?"

"Well you were the one who actually ran into me," Takuma pointed out, amused.

Harry smiled sheepishly. "Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn't looking where I was going."

"I could tell," Takuma chuckled. His brow then furrowed into a confused frown as he looked at her again. "Your eyes... They look different. Did you get contacts?"

Damn. Harry had been so distracted by having crashed into him that she'd forgotten why she hadn't been looking up in the first place. "Erm, no. I, err, normally wear contacts actually, but... I'm not... today." And now she sounded like a babbling idiot.

"Oh. That's a shame that you have to wear them - I like the natural colour," Takuma commented.

Harry felt her face colour. People seemed to keep saying that. "Oh, erm, I don't _have_ to wear them... I just, err..." Damn, what was the excuse she usually gave people for it again? All of a sudden she couldn't seem to remember...

Takuma seemed to catch on though. "You don't like the colour yourself? Why not?" He looked at her more closely and noticed that there was a single, spiked ring of brown around the iris of her right eye. "Ah, so you have partial heterochromia iridum... Is _that_ what you don't like?"

Harry frowned to herself and looked away. She should have known that somebody would notice the _one_ day she left her contacts out. "I just... I don't like that they don't _match_."

Takuma looked surprised for a second, then he suddenly chuckled again. "That's honestly what bothers you? It's really not all that noticeable. I just happen to have rather good eyesight."

Harry continued to avoid his gaze. She still wasn't convinced. "I guess you could say that I'm a perfectionist... Little things like that tend to bother me."

But that only seemed to amuse Takuma even more. "You do realise that nobody's perfect, don't you? Everyone has flaws of their own."

_That's easy for you to say_, Harry thought to herself. She'd been starting to learn just how much most of the girls at Cross Academy worshipped the very ground that the Night Class students walked on. Who else could be as close to perfect as they were?

"In fact, I'll let you in on a little secret..." continued Takuma, putting a slender finger to his lips and leaning in a little closer. "Everyone tells me that I'm too nice..."

Harry suddenly snorted with laughter. "Yeah, that's clearly a terrible thing. I'd hardly call that a significant flaw."

"You'd be surprised - a lot of people take advantage of it," Takuma laughed. His smile then turned sheepish. "And I, err, couldn't actually think of another flaw..."

"Clearly not modesty," said Harry wryly, though she was smiling too. "Maybe that you're a little scatterbrained would work better..."

"Err... You think I'm scatterbrained?"

Harry realised then that that was rather rude of her and that 'scatterbrained' could be easily conceived as an insult. "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't really mean it like that!" she added hastily. "I was just thinking about when you brought all the wrong books back here the other day..."

Surprise touched Takuma's eyes again, then he laughed as he realised almost immediately what she was talking about. He scratched his head, looking sheepish again. "Oh dear, I'd hoped that nobody else had overheard that..."

"If it's any consolation I think I was the only one," Harry chortled. "But don't worry; I actually thought it was kinda cute." Wait... The words surprised her as soon as she said them. Cute? When had she ever called anybody _cute_?

Takuma seemed quite mollified by it though. He smiled. "Then that proves that flaws aren't all bad - maybe it's just in the eyes of the beholder."

Harry couldn't help but concede that he had a point. "I guess you're right..."

Takuma looked amused again by that. "Well if I'm right about one thing then it's that you should keep your contacts out. Your one eye looks a little sore - I'd say they've been giving you some trouble..."

"You could say that," Harry agreed ruefully. He had no idea.

"Besides..." Takuma laid a hand on her shoulder. "Your eyes are much prettier without them."

Harry felt her face flush again. She didn't know what to say to that. "Err... Thanks..."

Takuma just gave her another smile. "Anyway, the Night Classes will be starting soon. I'll see you around, Harry."

"Oh, um, yeah. Bye."

Harry watched his retreating back as he left. Had one of the elite aristocrats really just complimented _her_? And on something she'd always hated about herself? Harry shook her head, feeling confused. She didn't know what to think about that. She was going to have to consult Yoko on this one... She _really_ didn't understand boys...

Harry had gotten halfway back to the Sun dormitories before she realised that she'd completely forgotten to get the textbook that she'd gone for in the first place... _Damn it_, she cursed herself. It looked like Takuma wasn't the only scatterbrained one after all.


End file.
